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Video: Finavia staff exchange in Beijing

Article published

3.5.2017 at 06:00

Five Finavia staff members were admitted to a unique staff exchange at Helsinki Airport's sister airport, Beijing Airport, in October 2016. See what our employees experienced and learned at Asia's biggest airport.

Staff exchangees participated in practical tasks in several units at Beijing Airport and got to know the Chinese service culture and the needs of Chinese passengers from varying points of view.

Seeing day-to-day work and practices of Asia's biggest airport first-hand was a unique experience.

China is a digital forerunner

Noora Westerberg, Commercial Manager at Helsinki Airport, was excited to hear she was chosen as one of the exchangees. In Beijing, she was especially impressed by the way digital solutions, social media and mobile in general were utilized at airport operations.

"Mobile payment is one of the growing trends in China."

- Mobile payment is one of the growing trends in China. It's great that we also got the Alipay payment platform here at Helsinki Airport last autumn, Westerberg says.

- The most important social media channels in China are Weibo and WeChat. Helsinki Airport has a Weibo account and we’re working to get our WeChat account open soon, she continues.

Chinese appreciate personal service

Helsinki Airport's Service Advisor Teija Oksanen applied for exchange programme in order to learn more about Chinese culture and develop her professional skills further. At Beijing Airport she noticed, among others, the vast amount of signs and high quality of personal service.

- It’s the matter of honor for us that the Chinese are interested in Finnish nature and Finland in general, Hirvonen says.

Understanding Chinese passenger needs

Although probably the biggest benefit of the staff exchange has to do with increased understanding of Chinese culture and passenger behaviour, some concrete development steps have already been taken at Finavia airports.

- Our Chinese-speaking service guides have been received well so we decided to continue our work with them. We have also more Chinese-speaking guides in our own customer service, Westerberg says.

- In addition, I’ve heard from service development that the terminal will soon have hot water dispensers. We noticed this hot water thing also in Beijing: The Chinese always carry a hot water bottle with them, she adds.

The amount of Chinese passengers has increased also at other airports, especially Lapland. According to Visit Finland, overnight stays of Chinese tourists in Finland has increased by an impressive 80 per cent over the past two years.